Record price for a postage stamp

The 1856 British Guiana one-cent black on magenta sold for $9.5 million – a new world auction record for any stamp – although below the estimate ($10 million-$20 million). The stamp was issued in the former British colony, today known as Guyana, on the north coast of South America. The buyer was not named. It was sold by the estate of the late John Eleuthère du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune. He bought the stamp for $935,000 in 1980. In 1997 he was convicted of the murder of his friend Dave Schultz, an Olympic wrestler. He died 13 years later in prison. Sotheby's said "the last stamp to draw such attention was the Treskilling Yellow, a Swedish stamp that sold for around $2.2 million in 1996.